President Obama's seven-hour health care summit last Thursday wassupposed to be a game-changer for the reform debates. It was not.

Though liberals and conservatives agree that the nation's health caresystem is in desperate need of reform, consensus on ways to achievethese reforms remains virtually nonexistent. As Time magazine reports,all the health care summit did was emphasize the sides' "fundamentally- and irreconcilably - different views of how to go aboutfixing the nation's health care system." The stalemate continues.

Concerns about the high costs, unprecedented federal expansion andoversight and unconstitutional mandates were left unresolved. Nothingfundamental changed. But if Obamacare is to gain any support, fundamental change -- namely starting over -- is necessary.

There was one significant change that sprung from the summit: ThePresident's admission that his plan would not reduce the cost ofprivate health insurance. Obama's most important health reformpromise was his oft-repeated pledge to lower health insurance costs by$2,500 per year. Being forced to admit on live television that his plan fails to dothat - and instead increases premiums - was the low pointof the summit for the president.

In an uneven back-and-forth moderated by the President, conservativesheld their own and urged their more liberal colleagues to scrap theirbloated proposal and, instead, work alongside them in drafting a trulybipartisan bill. But the Democrats insisted that enough time had beenspent debating and drafting the proposal and that the necessary nextstep is passage -- despite its flaws and collapsing public support.

Right now, the left doesn't even have enough votes within their ownranks to pass the bill. They confidently insist that they can conjurethem up, but "if you were watching television [Sunday], it quickly became apparent that the leadership in the House has no idea how they are going to get them. Over the weekend, in two separate interviews, top House leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) sang from different song sheets on how they plan to pass thebill. Heritage Vice President Mike Franc argues in National ReviewOnline, meanwhile, that using the reconciliation procedure suggestedto ensure Senate passage is unprecedented.

The Hill reports, "Centrist and anti-abortion lawmakers who havedoubts about the cost of the president's proposal and its support forthe Senate's abortion provisions have indicated that they are stillnot on board with the plan." Perhaps the left should take a hint: ifmembers of the Democratic Party disagree; if the entire RepublicanParty disagrees; and if the majority of the American people disagree,then maybe it's not a communication issue, as they insist it is. Maybeit's just bad policy.